One of the customary practices in these nine days is the avoidance of meat: it’s the way we commemorate the destruction of the Temple, where daily animal sacrifices were once brought.
Refraining from food is symbolic, of course. The idea is not just to avoid meat but to limit ourselves so that we can better focus on the spiritual.
As Jewschool notes, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, of the National Synagogue in Washington, D.C., published an op-ed in the New York Times calling on Agriprocessors and the OU to own up for its actions — which, by writer Josh Frankel’s accounting, is the first time a Yeshiva University-educated, OU-certified rabbi has taken a loud and public stand against Rubashkin. Frankel forgot the best part of the article — it’s called “Dark Meat.”
Hirhurim makes some logical complaints about the op-ed. But I really, really hope this breaks through the OU’s circles. Unfortunately, their last big spat with an independent investigator didn’t go so well — the panel investigating Baruch Lanner’s sexual-abuse allegations didn’t include any women (considering that’s who most of the abused people were) and kept most of their findings internal. Not to mention the whole Le Marais fiasco detailed here when, instead of trusting their own supervisor in his allegations of kosher violations, they kept their exclusive contract with the restaurant and fired him.
